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Dec. 24th, 2007 07:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickCountdown to Holiday Food!
Constant readers will recall that I posted about turkey prep on December 18 and, at that time, previewed the turkey Road ToJudeah... Morroco Success.
Tonight was the time for the preliminary turkey check. Preliminary turkey check suggests that turkey is nearly fully thawed and will be ready to go tomorrow morning at 8:00 AM. The preliminary turkey check is where I unwrap it from the plastic wrapping, check the carcass (and turkeys are very clearly a dead thing in a way that steaks and pounds of hamburger are not clearly dead things) over for pin feathers, unhook the feet (ankles?) and remove metal foot hook thing, and pull the neck and assorted turkey organs from the arse of the bird. At the preliminary turkey check, there was rotten ice (not "frozen solid" but still ice, but ice that I could kind of break apart with my hands. Rotten ice like that, not rotten ice like OMG GERMS!!) on the bird neck & innards, which is about where things should be at this stage of the game.
Despite the current culinary wisdom, I washed the bird in cold water. (Current wisdom is to not-wash, but this is a quick rinse and my mom rinsed and it is the Way of My People. We haven't died yet.) I rebagged the bird (to prevent drying out) in a clean grocery bag and tucked him back in the fridge until morning.
The bread (two loaves cheap white bread) is laying out and going stale for stuffing purposes. Once it's stale, I'll tear it into pieces and put it in the top of the turkey roasting pan for better mixing. (It's the only container I have that is the right size/shape for that volume of stuffing.) I may get motivated and chop/bag veggies tonight for easy sauteeing in the morning. That'd be nice, I could do sort of instant stuffing if I went that route.
As soothing as chopping vegetables for stuffing is, the first item on this evening's agenda is pie. I need two pies, one squash and one cherry. The cherries are currently thawing so I'll do the squash pie first and then while it's baking, the cherries can finish thawing. It's quarter to eight now, so I'll be done with pies along about 10 PM. I could have started earlier, but I was reading the 1632 book (done now) and that was too much fun to quit on.
Edit: 10:15 PM. Pie #1 now in oven. Fat cut into dough for second pie, but cherries not yet thawed and dough not mixed up or rolled out yet. Stuffing status report: Bread still drying. Otherwise, no progress on that front either, boss. Turkey bits have been boiled for stock-to-add-to-gravy, but bits have not been picked out and fed to cats yet. Cats are expressing their disapproval of this state of affairs.
Edit: 11:25 PM. Pie #2 in oven, kitchen cleaned up from pie mess. Bread still drying, will be torn up after pie #2 is removed. While Pie #2 is baking, stuffing veggies will be chopped. (I'm pretty sure I have an onion...) Put stock-for-gravy in fridge to see if I could scrape off excess fat on the morrow. It's got like an inch of clear fat on top. No. That is too much.
Constant readers will recall that I posted about turkey prep on December 18 and, at that time, previewed the turkey Road To
Tonight was the time for the preliminary turkey check. Preliminary turkey check suggests that turkey is nearly fully thawed and will be ready to go tomorrow morning at 8:00 AM. The preliminary turkey check is where I unwrap it from the plastic wrapping, check the carcass (and turkeys are very clearly a dead thing in a way that steaks and pounds of hamburger are not clearly dead things) over for pin feathers, unhook the feet (ankles?) and remove metal foot hook thing, and pull the neck and assorted turkey organs from the arse of the bird. At the preliminary turkey check, there was rotten ice (not "frozen solid" but still ice, but ice that I could kind of break apart with my hands. Rotten ice like that, not rotten ice like OMG GERMS!!) on the bird neck & innards, which is about where things should be at this stage of the game.
Despite the current culinary wisdom, I washed the bird in cold water. (Current wisdom is to not-wash, but this is a quick rinse and my mom rinsed and it is the Way of My People. We haven't died yet.) I rebagged the bird (to prevent drying out) in a clean grocery bag and tucked him back in the fridge until morning.
The bread (two loaves cheap white bread) is laying out and going stale for stuffing purposes. Once it's stale, I'll tear it into pieces and put it in the top of the turkey roasting pan for better mixing. (It's the only container I have that is the right size/shape for that volume of stuffing.) I may get motivated and chop/bag veggies tonight for easy sauteeing in the morning. That'd be nice, I could do sort of instant stuffing if I went that route.
As soothing as chopping vegetables for stuffing is, the first item on this evening's agenda is pie. I need two pies, one squash and one cherry. The cherries are currently thawing so I'll do the squash pie first and then while it's baking, the cherries can finish thawing. It's quarter to eight now, so I'll be done with pies along about 10 PM. I could have started earlier, but I was reading the 1632 book (done now) and that was too much fun to quit on.
Edit: 10:15 PM. Pie #1 now in oven. Fat cut into dough for second pie, but cherries not yet thawed and dough not mixed up or rolled out yet. Stuffing status report: Bread still drying. Otherwise, no progress on that front either, boss. Turkey bits have been boiled for stock-to-add-to-gravy, but bits have not been picked out and fed to cats yet. Cats are expressing their disapproval of this state of affairs.
Edit: 11:25 PM. Pie #2 in oven, kitchen cleaned up from pie mess. Bread still drying, will be torn up after pie #2 is removed. While Pie #2 is baking, stuffing veggies will be chopped. (I'm pretty sure I have an onion...) Put stock-for-gravy in fridge to see if I could scrape off excess fat on the morrow. It's got like an inch of clear fat on top. No. That is too much.
